It is the news that tells readers that the world is as they have imagined it.

We are the alternative press.

A marketplace for ideas . . .

What began as a half-dozen like-minded writers in a small city row home is now a collection of more than 20 of the world’s most innovative privately owned media companies.

The name “Agora” was initially decided upon for those half dozen writers in 1978. The word is a Greek term for marketplace.

In the early years, Agora was a publisher that had set out to share original, alternative, and useful views. It was the world’s first open source marketplace for ideas. “Sometimes right, sometimes wrong, and always in doubt,” was their motto. They did not claim to have the last word on every issue, but believed that readers ought to be offered different perspectives. From there they could make up their own minds.

Before long their commitment to the passionate expression of ideas overlooked by the mainstream media motivated other writers and entrepreneurs. While the companies that shared economic and investment ideas grew, others developed centered around a range of topics including real estate, health, and travel. Then entrepreneurship, self-improvement, and academic topics. And those companies spawned others.

But the idea of The Agora remained. Eventually, it would become a foundation for other contrarians and entrepreneurs all around the world.

Today the name “Agora” is synonymous with icons of the alternative press, and masters of direct marketing. The Agora, as the group is now known, is a community for companies that were all born of the same vision and philosophy – companies that celebrate the virtue of thinking independently and taking individual responsibility for your health, wealth, and future.